Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2013 10:30 am Post subject:
How big a part does theory play in electro?

So for the past year I've started making electronic music without any real knowledge of music theory (stupid idea I know). Up until now I just poked around the piano roll of ableton until a riff sounded good. Now I'm starting to want to learn theory, but I'm afraid everything I've made up until now is just garbage as everything is probably put of key and not in any scales or anything. These are the only two songs I'm worried about as the rest sucks anyway.
https://soundcloud.com/the_deadpixel/deadpixel-mutual-weirdnesshttps://soundcloud.com/the_deadpixel/xaphan
So is everything I've made till now basically ruined?

Do you like or hate what you have done yourself? If you don't like it, you now know how to make stuff that you don't like, and if you try different approaches, maybe that will produce some nice stuff.

Music is often about repeating yourself, keeping at it until you feel you're going somewhere. Trying out stuff in Live is a great way to get started. If you feel it's time to check out some theory it's time to check out some theory. Don't just shrug off your old stuff, once you know some more about what's going on and how to do stuff, compare it with your old stuff, find the parts that you liked but don't agree with the theory. That might be your own unique angle on things.

I have always found it useful to take a piece of theory with which I have no working familiarity and use it to drive a practice session, or an improv, or a composition. (Those three things are one thing in most ways.) I don't do that out of obligation, I do it because it stretches me and helps me hear new things. Sometimes it is music theory, sometimes signal processing theory, sometimes computing theory, sometimes grammar or math theory. Theories serve as a set of exploration tools. _________________When the stream is deep
my wild little dog frolics,
when shallow, she drinks.

For the most part, if something sounds good to your ears then there is probably some theory that explains why it sounds good. If it sounds bad or out of key then there is theory to explain that too. Since you are likely always trying to create music that sounds good, you probably aren't going to find many instances where your music conflicts with theory.

Think of theory more as guidelines that help direct your creative process. For example, it is a lot easier to create a song that remains in key when you know what notes are in the key you are playing because the number of available notes are limited.

In the end, whether using theory or not, just go with what your ears tell you.

I have never taken music lessons, but often I read about some theory or have someone explain something to me and I discover that I have been using the theory for years without ever knowing why or giving it a name. It is funny when jamming with someone who has taken lessons their entire life and they start talking about some complex theory that they are impressed to hear me using. My response is to shrug and say, "it just sounds good." _________________JacobWatters.com
Synth & DJ Product Specialist, Roland Canada

I'm almost entirely self-taught but I've picked up a little theory over the years; some from deliberate reading and some from musicians I've worked with.

I don't think theory "rules" have ever influenced what I've written. I always just play what sounds good to me. I'm aware when there is a dissonance. If I don't like it I remove it. If I like it, it stays. Dissonance has been used deliberately since late Classical music. Garage rock often contains naive dissonance; but sometimes it sounds right. So, what's the difference?

Sometimes too many rules or too many things to think about just complicates things.

I think it was Chuang Tzu who wrote about the centipede who was asked how he kept all his legs from tangling together when he walked. The centipede started to consciously think about walking and stumbled into a ditch.

I think the best contribution rules make is that they are fun to challenge._________________AEJOTZ is pronounced "A-Jotz"
retro-futurism now
electronics = magic
free albums at http://aejotz.bandcamp.comLast edited by A E J O T Z on Mon Aug 04, 2014 6:11 pm; edited 1 time in total

If we wrote music which was entirely based on theoretical rules, it would all sound good,.......in theory.
And anything which deviated from those rules would sound less good,......in theory. _________________What makes a space ours, is what we put there, and what we do there.

Hello,
Bringing this back up I'm new around here. I'm pondering theory also. I quite often will say at best I am a mediocre musican (yes I purposely misspell that BTW). I was that kid that at an early age learned the secret of watermelon bubble gum and was given a by for all classes related to muzak in school. So am at a loss when it comes to theory even the basics and terminology. I do have one redeeming quality and that is an uncanny ability to keep time. Spent some time as a ballet dancer, was quite often said you may be screwing up the choreography but at least you're on time.

My curiosity is of background piano, percussion, strings... Mine was bass guitar and despite my deficiencies had a decent go at it with blues and jazz because I could stay on time and in key once I got that part worked out. My father was one of those people that could walk up to about any instrument and just go to town on it unfortunately that trait didn't seem to be passed along.

I'm fairly sure there are some basics of theory you should be familiar with to have a decent go at it. Anyone care to share what some of those might be?

I have found that a distinction between implicit knowledge and explicit knowledge can be helpful at times; so maybe, it will be helpful here. If you know how to drive from one place to another but cannot give anyone directions, I call that implicit knowledge. If you have the ability to explain the directions to someone else, you have explicit knowledge.

I taught myself swimming from someone who was an excellent swimmer but couldn't explain how to do it. She couldn't even look at what I was doing and tell me what was right, what was wrong, and what I could do to improve.

When people later said to me, "you seem to know what you are doing, can you give me some tips?" I took the swimmer's implicit knowledge that I had internalized and put into practice, and made it explicit knowledge.

I'd say if you can play an instrument with competence, minimally, you have implicit knowledge. Making it explicit--developing the ability to explain to yourself and others what you are doing--might help performance.

Good post, Dr. Steve. Sometimes I like to keep things implicit, not too much conscious/verbal/explicit awareness, to keep from spoiling them with cogitation. Sometimes! _________________When the stream is deep
my wild little dog frolics,
when shallow, she drinks.

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